French shoppers buy fewer tampons, less detergent as prices surge

investing.com:

By Richa Naidu and Helen Reid

LONDON (Reuters) — French consumers are buying fewer personal hygiene and household products, sacrificing tampons and laundry detergent as prices of products made by big brands like P&G and Unilever (LON:ULVR) surge, data compiled for Reuters shows.

The shift in shoppers' habits could create a new battleground for retailers, politicians and consumer goods makers that have for months been fighting over food prices.

The data, compiled by NielsenIQ, showed overall sales volumes for shower gel, tampons, dishwashing products, laundry detergent and toilet paper declined in the year ended Sept. 17. Supermarket prices for items in each of these categories were sharply higher so far this month versus the same period last year.

«Where there are good private label alternatives you see a big shift towards private labels,» said Anton Delbarre, chief economist at retail trade group Eurocommerce.

«And what you also see is some people actually do eat less, shower less, clean the house less, or they use a little less product for their dishwasher or their washing machine.»

President Emmanuel Macron's government is due to address grocery inflation in its budget on Wednesday, with legislation to bring forward annual negotiations between food producers and supermarkets. It hopes price cuts can then take effect from Jan. 15 rather than March 1 as usual.

Food makers like Nestle and Pepsico (NASDAQ:PEP) have been criticised by supermarkets and politicians for not «co-operating» in pricing negotiations, and for reducing pack sizes of products.

Carrefour (EPA:CARR), which has pricing power as France's No.2 supermarket operator, last week slapped «shrinkflation» labels on products that are getting smaller with